somebody explain the idea of acceleration units to me. The whole “seconds squared” or “seconds per second” makes no sense to me.

Question

Like if a car starts at rest and moves at 4m/s^2 for 10seconds, what does that mean?

Does it mean the car is exponentially increasing in speed? Can someone draw it out for me second by second?

Edit:
***I have a follow up question to several of y’all’s responses in how the concept of acceleration relates to one of the big kinematics equations as well. That’s one of the big discrepancies I’m having trouble understanding***

In: 9

Answer 1

Subbing the units and then naming them can help.
Velocity aka speed: V= d/s (change in distance per second)
Acceleration: A=d/s^2= V/s (change in speed per second. / rate of change in speed / how fast your speed is changing for each second that passes)
Does that help conceptualize it?